Man, there are some really cool hearts here ! I just cannot wait to get some color !!!!!!!!!!
I played with clear (all I have right now) yesterday and as I have mentioned before - I AM TOTALLY HOOKED ON BORO !
Clear one is boro. Blue is soft glass. Had to try both ways. First time using your tut Brent. I have to say, the boro was easier for me. It's not perfect but almost ! lol !
Thanks for the tut ! I cannot wait to do more !
Debbie A.
Sorry 'bout crappy photo ! Had a heck of time with the clear !

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.
Hate me because I won this and you didn't!
I just got one of Mr Smileys boro pendants on ebay and
it is 100x more beautiful in my hot little hands.
You totally rock, Brent!

When are you going to be teaching in
California so all us hippie-chicks and surfer-dudes (and Surfer-chicks and hippie-dudes)
can come take a class from you? You can crash on my couch (just gotta shove the puppies off).

Karen... I am so glad you like it and thanks for the support. My pictures kinda suck compared to the real thing huh... I'd rather it be that way. then you are pleasantly surprised... Set something up for me to teach at. I have a torch and will travel. What teaching studios are out there? i don't push puppies off, I snuggle with 'em.

Baylie made it to LE... Woop woop!!! Welcome! Those are some very nice hearts man. Cool little bottle too. Make yourself at home. If you have any questions, just ask.

Here's a tip... Write a tutorial and the ladies will love you... do a picture tutorial and you may not make it out alive. Remember Elvis fans... yeah, it would be like that.

Problem is, all the studios use a HH or a minor and are worried about teaching boro on it. Personally, I do boro on a minor with a concentrator, so I'm not too worried myself. I'm working on setting up a basic boro class for another teacher at the local lampwork shop themandrel.com (hi Donna, if you're lurking around here!). If the class goes well, I'd do handstands to get you to do another boro class.

I'm hoping to do the class before November, so if you're serious about wanting to come out here and teach, PM me after that and I'll be thrilled to get something off the ground for you here.

Karen Hardy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Smiley

Karen... I am so glad you like it and thanks for the support. My pictures kinda suck compared to the real thing huh... I'd rather it be that way. then you are pleasantly surprised... Set something up for me to teach at. I have a torch and will travel. What teaching studios are out there? i don't push puppies off, I snuggle with 'em.

Here are the hearts I did. They turned out pretty good I think. Great tute, Smiley-man! I still suck at loops. I may just have to make a bead and put a whole bunch of loops on it to practice. The loop actually broke off of the blue one, which sucks cuz I like it the best!

__________________"I want to be the girl with the most cake"Patty - SRA #P7 • My eBay! • FacebookLynx with 2 5-lpm oxycons

Aren't you coming to my class next weekend? If so, I'll have you making perfect loops in no time. We are going to start with a loop excersise, so the pieces you guys make have nice ones on them. I've got 3 ways to make loops. I'm sure you'll love at least one. The hearts look awesome. I can give you a few more pointers in person.

Hey, Brent, I had some difficulty with the hearts in the Moretti, so today I dragged out my little sampler of Nothstar color and I'm a convert! I'll be spending all the rest of my paycheck on boro now... How does silver foil n'stuff react with Pyrex? Anyhow, we'll see what really happened when I open the kiln tomorrow morning...

Hey, Brent, I had some difficulty with the hearts in the Moretti, so today I dragged out my little sampler of Nothstar color and I'm a convert! I'll be spending all the rest of my paycheck on boro now... How does silver foil n'stuff react with Pyrex? Anyhow, we'll see what really happened when I open the kiln tomorrow morning...

Okay, Hannah, let's see 'em!

__________________"I want to be the girl with the most cake"Patty - SRA #P7 • My eBay! • FacebookLynx with 2 5-lpm oxycons

Step one, get yourself a ball of glass one the end of a punty. The design is up to you.

Next, squish it flat like a lollipop... different thickness will yield different hearts.

This is the super secret step I've never revealed before... take a pair of $1 scissors from the office supply store (plastic handles, stainless blades). Heat up the gather again and cut it from top to bottom of the pancake.

Now you put it back in the fire and shape... This is easier shown than explained, so hopefully I can get some pics...

When you have the lobes the shape you want, hang the whole thing upside down and turn in the flame. Direct most of the heat towards the bottom and let droop. The top lobes will fall together and the bottom will stretch out.

Once you have the general shape you want, you just have to put on a loop. Normally one lobe is higher and that's the one I put the loop on.

For the loop, I put about a half inch of rod on the spot I want the hoop to be on. Then I heat the glass and flip with pliers into a loop. Again, this would be easier to show than to tell.

Melt in the backside of the loop and reheat to shape as desired.

Now, punty up with a cold weld to the loop.

Pull off and shape the bottom of the heart, hold loop with pliers or tweezers and snap off cold welded punty. Fire polish the punty mark and behold the beauty you just made...

Hello...
I found your tutorial on hearts and i've seen your pics and i love them...but i'm new to lampworking and i may be dense but i don't quite get what your saying...do you have a picture tutorial ?

Leann, just play and try what you think it may mean. You'll discover so much about glass just playing. I know some people are visual, but I just don't have the time right now to do a picture tutorial. I was supposed to be getting some pics from a demo I did... but I haven't seen them. You know how it goes. If you've got specific questions, I'm happy to help.

Awesome heart Toni... this heart tech really does show us how to use minimal tools to shape glass. Once you learn to shape with heat and gravity, you can make a whole lot of things easier. I am so glad you're getting something out of it.

This is probably a stupid question - but how do you position these hearts in the kiln? Do they lay on something or are you hanging them by their loops on mandrels? I need to know before I start trying these.

Leann asked a question regarding photos and it really turned out it was the loops that were a problem, so I wrote the following to her... I'm sure there are tons of ways to do them, but this is what works for me. She uses a HH and soft glass, but its all the same -

Use clear glass for the first few times since its so stiff over the HH. Before you pull off the tip of the heart, add the loop to one side of the bumps on top.

Start by heating up one of the bumps onto which you'll add the loop. Then, heat a dollop of clear, and attach the two together. Pull the clear at a 45 degree angle from the heart, as if you are pulling a thick clear stringer. Make certain that you pull this OUTSIDE of the flame, and pull very slowly.

Melt off this thick clear stringer at about 1 1/2 inches.

Now, turn your hothead down as low as you can without it going out. THIS IS THE TRICK! Heat the stringer section closest to where it attaches to the heart, You only want to heat a little tiny bit of the stringer, and only enough to barely make it move when you grab it with tweezers. Remember not to put your tweezers into the flame. Work your way down the length of the stringer, going back and forth between the loop and the actual heart so the heart stays flame annealed and doesn't get too cold, until you are at the very end. Then hit the place where the loop end attaches to the heart with your flame.

Flame anneal the whole piece, pull off the punty, and pop the heart into the kiln.

I am so a newbie but wanted to give this a shot...they are really beautiful.

I have made 4 and the loop is the toughest part. I tried doing it this last way by putting a dab of clear and trying to pull a stringer, etc., but the stringer got too thin (pulling too fast, me thinks)....so I tried another method...

I laid the heart to the side and quickly wrapped a clear loop on a mandrel and then attached that to the heart. I suppose without a kiln, I shouldn't have laid it to the side, or? That is the reason that 2 cracked in half?

Any thoughts?
I got the idea of the loop on a mandrel from an implosion pendant tutorial that I had read and in it the artist said it was ok to lay the pendant to the side for a few seconds....

Should I have put it in vermiculite until ready....or if I had a kiln, laying it in there for a few seconds would do the trick?

Here are two of my three attempts. The blue one is cracked. It was a bit stressful figuring out how to coordinate the steps. I'm mostly afraid that the hemostats that I use to hold the heart, while I make the loop, will melt into the glass so I didn't bring the whole piece up to temperature well enough on the blue one. I need to play until I get more confident and I want more graceful "tails" on them. Brent; thanks for this tutorial. It is fun to work from the rod rather than a mandrel.

Here are two of my three attempts. The blue one is cracked. It was a bit stressful figuring out how to coordinate the steps. I'm mostly afraid that the hemostats that I use to hold the heart, while I make the loop, will melt into the glass so I didn't bring the whole piece up to temperature well enough on the blue one. I need to play until I get more confident and I want more graceful "tails" on them. Brent; thanks for this tutorial. It is fun to work from the rod rather than a mandrel.

dk teal with raku

cobalt blue

The graceful ends will come in time. It's all about heat control... don't put the tip "in" the flame... just next to it or pull it through the flame quickly. These are awesome! Make more!